Unforeseen
by citizen17
Summary: Elizabeth helps the Engineer after he tries to kill her and it leaves him deeply in debt to her. She cannot imagine the consequences of her actions, the Engineer himself does not realize what has happened until it's much too late.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, just having some fun.

Unforeseen

Chapter one: The sleeping God

Doctor Shaw sat in the far corner, as far away from everybody else as possible.

Old eyes scrutinized her for a moment. Mr. Wayland almost felt bad for deceiving her. Almost.

She had tried to convince him to leave and go back to Earth because that this place was not what she had believed it to be. But he could do no such thing. Not now that he could be granted salvation by the creators themselves.

So he simply ignored her, the loss of Doctor Holloway's life meant little to him.

He had nothing to lose now and he had to try everything and anything before he could accept his mortality.

How could his own body betray him so? And how could the team of doctors and scientists he funded for years to find ways to prolong his life sit at his mahogany conference table and say to him that they could do no more?

It was when he heard that that he regretted not branching into medicine sooner. He was sure there was a way to elude death but it was just out of his grasp. 'Nothing is impossible' was one of the mottos he lived his life by.

Now the technological achievements of his company could prevent his impending death no more than the doctors could.

When he thought the only choice he had was to go into cryostasis to wait for the necessary advancements in the medical field that would save him and hope he would not die in his sleep he received Doctor Shaw's transmission.

He set up a meeting with her the very next day and learned from her and her colleague about their finds and beliefs. Their theory about the awaiting Gods gave him more hope than they knew. He agreed to fund their expedition to find these Gods and three months later they set out into the stars looking for them aboard the Prometheus.

Now here he was on some desolate rock in uncharted space on his way to salvation delivered by a scientist with a firm belief in the divine. He would laugh if he wasn't as desperate as he was.

He looked about him again. David was as still and expressionless as ever, Doctor Ford was a bundle of nerves but her attempt at keeping it in check was admirable. He couldn't see the driver, one of his men, a mercenary he couldn't care enough about to remember the name of. And then there was Doctor Elizabeth Shaw, at first glance she looked as if she was meditating. Her eyes were closed and she took deep even breaths, the only thing betraying this was the sheen of sweat on her face. She was in agony. The ride was less than smooth it jarred her fresh surgery. She really was a remarkable woman, a true survivor, one he was glad to have at his side in a moment like this.

The rover came to a sudden stop, they had arrived and excitement bubbled in the old man's gut.

Their advance through the labyrinthine structure was slow. Mr. Wayland was shuffling along at a snail's pace, even aided by the exoskeleton he wore. Elizabeth was not much faster than the old man, the pain in her belly was almost unbearable even if the sturdy suit she wore provided a little support and gave her severed muscles some respite. She talked herself into putting one foot in front of the other and try not to fall behind the others too much.

Their destination could not be much farther it felt to her as if they had been walking for hours but knew it wasn't the case. Neither she nor Mr. Wayland could walk for so long. She felt warm blood leek down her thighs from the incision in her abdomen, she prayed to God not to collapse before she could see the Engineer and get some answers.

The questions were eating at her very soul, 'Why had they forsaken them? What were they doing here? What happened to all the other Engineers?' She was sure the questions would hunt her for all eternity if she didn't get any answers in this God forsaken place.

Elizabeth felt a tidal wave of dread wash over her when David opened the door to a huge cargo hold filled to the brim with urns. She warned Janek of the find and went on after the others.

When they finally reached the room where David said the Engineer was, her ears were buzzing and she was incredibly dizzy. As she fell to her knees she felt suffocated by her helmet and removed it, she didn't care about any contagion anymore.

David was speaking, lauding the Engineer's technology and if she didn't know any better she would say he was smug about his knowledge of the superior species.

He told them that the Engineers were on their way to Earth when disaster struck and stopped them. Then he opened the pod and they had their first glimpse of the Engineer, it was peacefully asleep and watching it in this state made it hard for Elizabeth to believe that it had been on a mission to decimate the human species before he went into hyper sleep.

The Engineer stirred and then stood in all his seven and a half foot glory.

The obviously male Engineer took in their diminutive forms with confusion in his strange eyes and stepped out of the pod, he stumbled, the two thousand year nap had affected him if only a little.

Elizabeth was in awe for a moment, he looked like an angel.

Mr. Wayland prompted David to tell the Engineer why they had come, Elizabeth was enraged, the old man's reasons were not her own.

She stood on shaky legs and approached the Engineer alone, separate from the others.

"Ask him where they're from." She said, not able to hold back her questions anymore, she was a scientist to the core, she needed to know. "Ask him what's in his cargo, it's killed his people."

The Engineer turned his full attention on her, for the slightest moment he looked surprised then the expression vanished. Elizabeth felt a jolt of adrenaline jolt through her body when she met his eyes; it helped her go on even if David didn't translate anything she said.

"You made it here and it was meant for us. Why?"

"Shaw, enough!" Mr. Wayland barked he didn't care about anything but himself. He ordered the mercenary - Jackson - to shut her up if she opened her mouth again.

She meant to ignore him and took another step towards the Engineer when she was struck in the abdomen by Mr. Wayland's man. The scream that ripped its way out of her throat sounded foreign even to her own ears.

The Engineer watched her with his dark, eerie eyes, his attention only leaving her to glare at the one who struck her.

Elizabeth doubled over from the excruciating pain and her eyes filled with tears but she didn't stop, she couldn't.

"I need to know why! What did we do wrong? Why do you hate us?" She screamed.

David finally spoke to the Engineer in his strange language and she straightened some to watch their interaction but instead of peaceful conversation a scene of horror unfolded before her eyes.

The Engineer ripped David's head off and dispatched of the rest of the team in seconds. Elizabeth decided she wouldn't wait around for her turn; she grabbed her helmet and ran as fast as she could, her heart pounding in her chest and adrenaline high in her blood. Her surgery hurt badly but she pushed herself to run, she had to warn the others.

'How could she have been so wrong about everything?'

Her thoughts were scattered by an ominous sound, she realized the Engineer was powering up what looked to be a ship.

The next minutes passed in a flash. She ran, was thrown about by a powerful gust of wind and dust, managed to crawl out an exhaust shaft and warned Janek, pleaded with him to do the right thing and stop the Engineer from delivering his deadly payload.

Thankfully Janek understood the urgency of the situation and was willing to pay the high price in order to protect Earth.

Elizabeth saw only one pod eject from the ship before the Prometheus sped into the alien ship so fast all she registered was a brilliant blue flash.

The thunderous noise rattled the very bones in the two humans left on the moon and the resulting shockwave threw them to the rocky ground.

Elizabeth watched as the mostly intact alien spacecraft turned and began falling back to the moon's surface almost in slow-motion.

Rubble from the impact began raining down all around the area she was in and it seemed as the Engineer ship would fall right on top of her. She got back to her feet and moved towards an area she thought would be safe from the impending crash but after a few hurried paces she fell again.

Her heart thudding in her ears Elizabeth turned on her back to see her fate unfold.

The ship soared above the place she had fallen, close enough for her to feel it vibrate through her suit. It touched ground about fifty feet from her and the ground beneath her body shook violently, she screamed from sheer fear.

The last thing she saw before blackness overtook her was a huge piece of debris falling towards her.

When she came to the first thing she registered was that she was uncomfortably hot.

"Oxygen at twenty percent." A mechanical voice informed her. She blinked slowly to clear her vision. The debris had fallen mere feet from her and it was on fire.

"Oxygen at twenty percent." The voice insisted.

She tried to get up and after a few attempts she managed to get to her feet and take in her surroundings. The giant alien ship occupied most of her vision, it sat on top of the place the one escape pod ejected from the Prometheus had landed. Whoever it had been it was now as dead as the others. Pieces of the Prometheus peppered the landscape most of them were on fire.

She stumbled around until she spotted the intact life module of the late Miss Vickers and started walking towards it with the artificial voice warning her every ten seconds of imminent suffocation.

As she sealed the doors behind herself and took the helmet off the voice was shushed and she breathed a relieved sigh.

The module was in total disarray, Elizabeth wasted no time she headed for the Med Bay, perhaps the Med Pod could do something for her. If not she was sure there was more anesthetic in there, at least she would die numb. She dropped her helmet in the main compartment of the module, in the sea of books strewed about. The sound made the current occupant of the Med Bay alert and Elizabeth saw movement inside before she was able to touch the pad to open the door. She approached the door slowly and as quietly as possible. When she saw the thing inside she could barely believe her eyes. It was the monster she cut out of herself a couple hours ago, if that, and it was huge.

Horrified she backed away from the door until she was back in the main compartment.

"Elizabeth, are you there?" It was David.

"Yes, I'm here." She croaked.

"You must leave immediately. He's coming for you." The android warned.

"Who? Who's coming for me?" She asked dazed.

She was still facing the Med Bay when she was grabbed and flung against a wall with enough force to make her vision blur. She screamed, it was the Engineer and he looked murderous.

The noise alerted the monster locked in the Med Bay of their presence and it started throwing its self at the door.

The Engineer ignored the ruckus, he was too busy snarling viciously in her face, his own inches from hers.

He wrapped his hands around her throat and squeezed, not enough to close off her airways completely but enough to instill fear.

Elizabeth was gripped by panic and she was trying to pry his fingers from her neck. He was still snarling in his odd language and David was responding through her suit's com link.

Whatever David was telling him was only making him angrier.

"He wants me to tell you, Miss Shaw, that he will enjoy squeezing the life out of you." David told her, "I'm sorry." He finished.

"So am I." She wanted to say but couldn't because the Engineer was tightening his hands around her throat.

There was a loud crash accompanied by the sound of metal groaning. The beast had escaped and it hurled its massive body into the Engineer's.

Elizabeth screamed as she was thrown by the impact further then the two aliens, the Engineer screamed as well, it was a sound of rage mixed with horror.

The three of them were on the ground, Elizabeth, the Engineer and a flurry of strong tentacles grabbing at both of them. She managed to slip away and ran but realized she had nowhere to go; her helmet was in the room with the battling titans. She turned back towards the room but she couldn't go back in there unarmed. She searched for a weapon and found a large axe in the emergency box by the door, she grabbed it.

When she reentered the room, the Engineer was barely holding his own against the massive monster. He was keeping himself away from its mouth by pushing with his feet on either side of its gaping maw but he was tiring quickly, the monster was much stronger than him and it was a matter of seconds before the Engineer was overpowered by the horror.

Elizabeth thought it a horrible way to go, eaten by such a monster. She was sure that after it was done with the Engineer the thing would come after her and she decided she would rather take her chances with the humanoid; at least he wouldn't feast on her flesh.

So she swung as hard as she could; her target was its large, toothy maw. She hit home and to her surprise it let go of the Engineer in a beat and started thrashing around the room hissing and shrieking.

Elizabeth ran and hid behind the large bar, she grabbed the only thing available that she could potentially use as a weapon, a chilled bottle of expensive vodka and clutched it tightly to her chest.

A few moments later the horrible noises stopped and Elizabeth felt it was safe enough to peek around the bar's edge.

The huge monster was slumped to the ground, unmoving. Her problem now was the Engineer examining the dead creature at a safe distance. He was coiled as a spring; she could read the tension in his stance.

She too stood behind the bar, opened up the bottle of hard liquor and took a swig. The alcohol burned its way down her throat; she wasn't used to the sensation and slammed the bottle to the plastic surface of the bar. The noise startled the Engineer, who whirled around and faced her again.

"You want to kill me so bad, fine. But now you owe me and I want some answers." She said and David this time translated for her.

5


	2. Chapter 2

"You want to kill me so badly fine you can do it but now you owe me and I want some answers." She said and David translated without having to be asked.

The engineer looked at her silently for a long while then grumbled something in his own language.

"He said 'I do not wish to kill you.'" The android said.

"He could have fooled me." Elizabeth said with a huff of mirthless laughter, David didn't translate for her.

The Engineer spoke again, this time louder.

"You destroyed my ship after I let you go." David said for him.

"Because you wanted to take that, that...thing to Earth. You wanted to kill us all." Elizabeth said angrily.

"Are you referring to the substance in the urns Miss Shaw?" David asked.

"Yes." She told the android which then relayed her words to the engineer.

"It was my purpose." He said through David.

"But why? Why do you want to kill us? What have we done to deserve such fate?"

"You disobeyed us. You disregarded everything we taught you. Numerous times. Your people is a disappointment to mine. A disgrace to our blood. You wage wars between each other, you kill each other out of greed and jealousy. Spitting on the gift you were given." The Engineer raged.

And Elizabeth couldn't help but shrink in on herself at the intensity of his wrath.

"Do you wish me to continue?" He asked with an ugly sneer.

"We've changed. Not entirely I admit but we are still a relatively young species. You cannot judge a child for not knowing better. This is the same. We needed to grow, to learn." Ellie cried. Her fear diluted by anger and disappointment.

"You were taught! But you refused to learn." The engineer seethed, but his words were relayed calmly by the android.

Elizabeth feared he would snap again and kill her this time.

"I believe that there are things that cannot be taught." Elizabeth said. "Sometimes we need to make mistakes in order to learn."

"I know. As I've said we tried to teach you numerous times. Hundreds of generations were guided on the right path. But you have always strayed from it as soon as we left. You are hopeless." He said with a wave of his hand in her direction.

"We are not! The fact that I am here today proves that. We have not killed each other. There has been lasting peace on Earth for some time now." She countered with vehemence, she was caring less and less about the prospect of her demise by the second.

"Perhaps, but your fate was decided long ago. I cannot change the will of the ancients."

David explained to her that the ancients he referred to were leaders among his kind that ruled jointly.

A glimmer of hope.

"Then let me." Elizabeth blurted. " I need to at least try to help my people. Take me before them. Please." She sobbed.

"They will not listen to you." He told her.

"You cannot know that."

The engineer laughed, a mirthless sound, gravely and deep.

"I might be wrong," he said with a little nod her way, "they might listen to what you have to say, if only out of curiosity."

"As long as they listen..." She whispered sadly. "Why, why do you think they haven't sent someone else?" She asked all of the sudden.

He thought about it for a while, that hadn't occurred to him or rather he hadn't had time to think of it. The Council certainly knew of the events that caused his failure to fulfill the mission, he'd sent that transmission himself when things got out of control.

"I do not know." He said at last.

"Maybe they changed their mind." Elizabeth suggested hopeful.

"Unlikely but not entirely impossible." He admitted.

"You must understand, your kind was our greatest hope, the Ancients didn't pass their judgment lightly. They wouldn't just change their minds." He explained.

"But you do not know."

"I do not." He conceded.

"But you would have continued nonetheless." She asked.

"I have not received any other orders."

"Perhaps they were unable to transmit." She said, a bit of her irritation seeping into her voice.

He laughed, actually laughed and it made her even angrier.

"The communications towers still function after all the time that passed without any upkeep. Our technology will outlast anything you can imagine, that is not the reason you seek."

"Even more reason to believe they changed their minds about us then."

He was silent for a while.

"It doesn't really matter right now, I have no way to complete the mission anymore, you've destroyed the only ur'za, left. But if it is your wish to come with me I will take you. Choose carefully. You will not be permitted to return if we even find them."

"Find them?"

"I tried to contact the fleet, silence was my only answer. I think they moved on to another part of this galaxy if not left this one for another one altogether."

"Alright, yes. I'll go."

The Engineer looked at her for a moment, puzzled then said something else, his tone much quieter that before.

"He asks whether you are certain Miss Shaw." David's voice crackled through the speakers in her suit.

"Yes David, I'm certain."

"Very well." He said and told the Engineer her words.

The Engineer nodded once, more to himself than her.

As the adrenaline ebbed away Ellie felt her energy seeping from her and her pain returning, not only in her belly, her head started pounding fiercely, her very heartbeat causing pain so intense she cringed.

'I'm going to die.' she thought and fear crept up her spine yet again.

'Not now, no.'

"David?" She said and tried to move. Her body strongly disagreed, she had never felt anything like it before. Unbearable pain in her belly, as if invisible hands reached in and teared her surgery apart she couldn't even scream.

"Yes, Elizabeth."

She couldn't breathe,

she panicked and tried to move again and this time her feet gave out under her. David heard the crash through the open radio.

"Elizabeth?" He asked again, louder.

"What is with her?" The Engineer asked when she stumbled and fell.

"What happened?" David asked.

"She's unconscious. She looked pained and fell. Is she ill? Did she touch any of the ur'za ampules?" He asked a bit alarmed.

"She did not. But she is injured. Gravely so."

"Where? What happened?"

"She was pregnant and removed the...child herself in a crude surgery. Her abdomen has a rather large incision that, I'm afraid might have opened again."

"She killed her own child?" The Engineer asked in a snarl.

"She did not kill it - unfortunately. You've met her spawn, it sounded quite intriguing, a fascinating specimen I'm sure."

The Engineer shuddered with the realization.

"Explain." He said after a moment.

"Her...mate was recently infected when she became impregnated by him."

"He should have been dead long before he could seed her. How was he infected?"

"He ingested some of the substance unknowingly. Diluted in alcohol."

"How?" He asked again more gravely, still keeping his distance from the injured human female.

"I gave it to him." David admitted coolly.

"You are the cause of all of this then."

"I never meant to hurt her, I followed my creator's orders."

"There will be time to assess your culpability for now tell me how long has it been since she had contact with her infected mate and where is he?"

"About a day on this moon, Dr. Holloway - her mate - has been terminated."

"How, where is his body?"

"There is no body left, he was... burned."

"At least you've done something right." He grumbled approaching the unconscious female.

No blood seeped through her suit but that didn't mean much. He followed the knitted line that went from where her navel was to the collar at her neck.

The artificial helped him figure out how to remove it so he could have a look at her. It kept asking him questions as if it was concerned of her well-being, he was not fooled.

He pulled the metal piece down as he was instructed and just as he suspected her suit parted on the knitted path he'd observed.

He was appealed by what he found. She was torn apart from hipbone to hipbone, a few metal clips clinging to her broken skin. The wound seeped thick blood, it's metallic smell filing his nostrils and making him gag.

He pulled on the metal piece again, sealing the suit around her once more.

"How does it look!" The artificial asked.

"Bad, I need to take her to the edifice, I can heal her there."

He moved as fast as he could fixing her collar and bulbous helmet, he had to change her oxygen supply but with the artificial guiding him he completed the task quickly enough.

He rushed across the rugged terrain dodging pieces of the ship she had come here in.

He felt the strain on his lungs but pushed on, he could survive in this atmosphere because his life suit kept his oxygen level at normal levels and cleared his blood of toxins. But that meant he had to breath in more and by the time he reached the heavy doors of the edifice he had lived in before the disaster he was heaving and a little lightheaded, alas, after a few moments inside he was perfectly well again.

He walked the dark corridors expertly and with determination, his eyes didn't need much light anyway.

There was coarse dust everywhere and it crunched loudly under his feet, the sound resonating deeply into the halls. This windy planet will have buried this place eventually in it's glassy sands.

The female in his arms didn't move an inch nor did she make any sounds at all and it caused a spark of worry to liven in his chest.

He reached the door he searched. The healing room. He'd been in there more times than he would have admitted; he had the scars to prove it under his suit. That was the life of a soldier though, he wouldn't complain.

The heavy door opened before him the stale air inside sweeping over them, he walked in and placed his charge onto the examination table, then powered up the room. It was fairly intact. a few empty vials were scattered on the floor. Pain killers.

He took his mind off of those, it was no use to ponder on that now. He summoned the regeneration chamber and it swirled into position smoothly.

"If I may ask," The artificial said "What are you doing to her?"

He returned to the female and started undressing her.

"I'm repairing the damage." He said as he pulled her suit off carefully. Revealing her previous wound to the air. Her skin steamed as did the blood still seeping out of her. He rushed to remove the little metal pieces from her torn flesh.

"What kinds of savages bind flesh with metal?" He snarled after trying to remove the frustrating little clips, it took too long but he couldn't let any slip by.

"Humans have used this technique for many years now. It's quite an effective way to keep wounds closed until they heal on their own." David piped up.

The Engineer huffed in aggravation; he couldn't care less at the moment because all they did now was delay her healing.

When he was finally done he ripped the coverings over her mammary glands and genitalia as carefully as he could. She was covered in blood and perspiration but there was little he could do about that. He left her to summon a healing pod then picked her up as gingerly as he was able.

She looked so helpless it wrenched his heart.

The pod spun out of its place in the wall and settled horizontally, its carapace pulling into its sides silently. It was ready.

He laid the still unconscious female inside and place a black fleshy mask over her face which sealed itself to her skin seamlessly. With a touch of his hand the pod closed and began filling with regenerative gel. He stood over it, watching her disappear underneath it, he was a bit nervous the pod wouldn't recognize the creature within it. She'd be lost if that happened.

After a few agonizing seconds the pod chirped and started relaying all that was wrong with her in a small hologram above it.

He breathed a relieved sigh for the machine's acceptance and touched the symbol to begin the healing process without reading any of the data it showed. He wasn't a medic so most of it was gibberish to him anyway.

The pod chirped again happily and began its task, it would be a while until it was done with her.

He felt lost so he left the room. He went to the armory, retrieved a head piece which he donned and left.

He navigated through the debris field, towards his ship which was badly damaged but salvageable if it wasn't for it's deadly cargo. As it was his duty to make sure the ampules were destroyed so he went back to the control chamber and set the self-destruct to go off in a cycle.

After that was done he headed back to the research edifice the humans had been exploring. Once inside he went directly to the communications relay located at the top of the structure, ignoring the piles of dead he found here and there. It was no use to lose himself in grief now. The cold dark halls unnerved him some, despair seeming to have infiltrated the walls but he pushed on focused on the task ahead.

Once at his destination he wasted no time in powering up the relay. He scanned the appropriate bandwidths and send pings to other planets he knew should have responded but only static greeted him. This was unheard of, unless they truly left.

He sent messages further into space and waited.

After a long time he decided to return to the female, the pod should be done restoring her health soon and, if his assumptions were correct, there was little hope anybody would bother to listen to for any signals coming from this part of the galaxy anyway.

The machine was still humming softly when he returned so he sat down by the door and waited, making a mental list of the hangars that may still have its ships in dock. There weren't very many left before the quarantine was set on this moon, he'd seen the ships leave with his own eyes before the situation got out of control and he went into deep sleep to wait for rescuers that never came.

It was odd really, the way there was no clues of mala'k'ak activity after he went to sleep. Somebody should have either secured the ur'za urns or destroyed them so that events such as those that unfolded would have been prevented.

There were many places he could search for answers and he would go to every one of them until he found out what happened as soon as the machine released the small human female.

He doubted his own sanity for agreeing to take her with him, he could leave her after she was well, his debt would be paid and he was wouldn't be obligated to help her anymore. He shook himself in disgust of his own thoughts, he had to take her or she would die. Not to mention he had agreed to do it and he never went back on his word.

He groaned loudly as he sat down as far away from the pod as the room allowed. He was frustrated with the situation he found himself in and the silence had unnerved him greatly.

Elizabeth woke up slowly, she was so warm and comfy she didn't want to open her eyes. Her bliss was shattered when she decided to crack her eyes open, all she could see was a white haze. She was in something like a tub , filled with...something. Then horror struck as she realized there was something on her mouth, she immediately started panicking and flailing around in the goo she was submerged in but as soon as she started moving something pulled back from her throat that she hadn't even noticed was there to begin with, gagging in disgust she grasped the edges of the tub and pulled herself out of the viscous liquid.

The mask plopped back in the gel while she gasped in fright.

Before her the engineer laid casually against the wall watching. Their eyes met and she froze.

"David?" She asked after a while.

"At last, I was getting worried."

* * *

I really need someone to comb through these chapters. Sorry for the glacial update rate.


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